Shizuichi Tanaka

Shizuichi Tanaka (1 October 1887-24 August 1945) was a General in the Imperial Japanese Army who commanded the Eastern District Army in the Tokyo-Yokohama area of mainland Japan during World War II.

Biography
Shizuichi Tanaka was born on 1 October 1887 in Tatsuno, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, and he joined the Imperial Japanese Army before studying English literature (especially William Shakespeare) at Oxford University in the United Kingdom). In 1918, he led the Japanese victory parade in London at the end of World War I, and he began to develop pro-Western sentiments during his time in England as well as his time as a military attache in the United States, during which time he met the future World War II and Korean War general Douglas MacArthur.

Tanaka briefly served as a division commander during the Second Sino-Japanese War before heading several administrative posts in Japan or in occupied territories during World War II. From 1942 to 1943, he served as Governor-General of the Philippines, succeeding Masaharu Homma and preceding Shigenori Kuroda. On 19 March 1945, he was given command of the Eastern District Army in the Tokyo-Yokohama area, and he was one of the men who opposed in Kenji Hatanaka's planned coup against Hirohito to prevent his surrender. Tanaka had his troops relieve the imperial palace, and he almost singularly ended the 15 August 1945 coup. However, he felt responsible for the US Air Force's destruction of Tokyo, so he shot himself through the heart with a pistol at his sutra-covered desk on 24 August 1945.